in case you are curious

here is an article about why wegmans is so much better than whole foods.

wegmans, or weggies as i call it, is central to ROC identity. and i can sort of understand why: ROC has suffered a lot in recent decades, with various layoffs at xerox, kodak and bausch and lomb (visual city, eh?), all of which industries were what rochesterians felt classily distinguished them from their lowbrow buffalo neighbors.

so there's a kind of whatever-happened-to-baby-jane attitude that ROC has, only without the smeared lipstick. ROC is sure that it is talented and pedigreed, but can't quite get it right. last night we went to a restaurant that advertised "live jazz" on friday and saturday night, which we know is always a euphemism, but even this stretched the seams: it was oldies covers, including monkees covers. for live jazz. this seemed quintessentially rochesterian.

along comes weggies, and as a grocery store it really really rules. it makes you feel epicurean and frugal at the same time. nearly unthinkable. in short, it finally confirms what rochesterians think about themselves, which is that they like the finer things in life.

and but. in a recent article in the ROC entertainment weekly about where to bring your visitors, the article's author joked a little bit too long and too loud about bringing visitor's to wegs. and at an orientation session where we were told we have a budget for little outings or supplements to our freshman writing classes, the orientor (?) said, "you know, like if you want to take your students out for ice cream or to a movie or to wegmans or something."

these kinds of references, to wegmans--i.e., a fucking grocery store, let me remind you--as the kind of place that out of towners and eighteen year olds would want to visit, are the smearing lipstick on the whatever-happened-to-baby-jane-ish face of ROC. and yet, after only a month and a half here, i can kind of understand it. how do they do it??? we just came back from the biggest fanciest weggies and we really do feel like better people for it. not better with the stink of zen on us, as the above article describes, but healthy and smart and worldly. i would like someone to analyze the place's architecture or aromas or something to see how they do this. maybe subliminal noises or something?